"That--that is something different," she managed to gasp desperately.
"It--it belongs to the past; it cannot be helped now."
"Yet you came here to warn me against him?"
"Yes."
"How did you chance to learn that my life was threatened?"
She uplifted her eyes to his for just one instant, her face like marble.
"He told me."
"What? Farnham himself? You have been with him?"
She bowed, a half-stifled sob shaking her body, which at any other time
would have caused him to pause in sympathy. Now it was merely a new
spur to his awakened suspicion. He had no thought of sparing her.
"Where? Did he call upon you at the hotel?"
She threw back her shoulders in indignation at his tone of censure.
"I met him, after the performance, in a private box at the Gayety, last
evening," she replied more calmly. "He sent for me, and I was alone
with him for half an hour."
Winston stood motionless, almost breathless, looking directly into the
girl's face. He durst not speak the words of rebuke trembling upon his
lips. He felt that the slightest mistake now would never be forgiven.
There was a mystery here unsolved; in some way he failed to understand
her, to appreciate her motives. In the brief pause Beth Norvell came
back to partial self-control, to a realization of what this man must
think of her. With a gesture almost pleading she softly touched his
sleeve.
"Mr. Winston, I truly wish you to believe me, to believe in me," she
began, her low voice vibrating with emotion. "God alone knows how
deeply I appreciate your friendship, how greatly I desire to retain it
unsullied. Perhaps I have not done right; it is not always easy,
perhaps not always possible. I may have been mistaken in my conception
of duty, yet have tried to do what seemed best. There is that in the
pages of my past life which I intended to tell you fully and frankly
before our final parting. I thought when I came here I had sufficient
courage to relate it to you to-day, but I cannot--I cannot."
"At least answer me one question without equivocation--do you love that
man?" He must ask that, know that; all else could wait.
An instant she stood before him motionless, a slight color creeping
back into her cheeks under his intense scrutiny. Then she uplifted her
eyes frankly to his own, and he looked down into their revealed depth.
"I do not," the low voice hard with decision. "I despise him."
"Have you ever loved him?"
"As God is my witness--no."
There was no possible disbelieving her; the absolute truthfulness of
that utterance was evidenced by trembling lips, by the upturned face.
Winston drew a deep breath of relief, his contracted brows
straightening. For one hesitating moment he remained speechless,
struggling for self-control. Merciful Heavens! would he ever
understand this woman? Would he ever fathom her full nature? ever rend
the false from the true? The deepening, baffling mystery served merely
to stimulate ambition, to strengthen his unwavering purpose. He
possessed the instinct that assured him she cared; it was for his sake
that she had braved the night and Farnham's displeasure. What, then,
was it that was holding them apart? What was the nature of this
barrier beyond all surmounting? The man in him rebelled at having so
spectral an adversary; he longed to fight it out in the open, to
grapple with flesh and blood. In spite of promise, his heart found
words of protest.